Category: Business News

Image copyright
Getty Images

A former US treasury secretary says public investment will be key as the world recovers from the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.

Larry Summers told the BBC that central banks are going to become “less relevant”, as interest rates are going to be near zero for much of the time.

“Fiscal policies are going to be more important in supporting economic expansion,” he said.

“And public investment policies are going to play a larger part.”

Mr Summers, who is now an economic advisor to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, told Radio 4’s The World This Weekend programme that “for those with an agenda around infrastructure, there’s huge opportunity in this moment”.

Without a doubt, there will be voices right now raising warnings of the political dangers and tax implications of such a growth in state intervention, but none of the economists The World This Weekend spoke to were among them.

Gerard Lyons, chief economist to Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London and a high profile supporter of Brexit, said such spending is affordable: “Clearly, there is a need at some stage to bring government debt down, in terms of the size of its economy, as we did after the Second World War. But the key thing is that low inflation, low rates and low yields allows the government to sustain a much higher level of borrowing after this crisis.”

Image copyright
Getty Images

For some on the left, the inevitability of more government spending – on both benefits and big job-creating projects – is an opportunity.

The prospect has certainly cheered up the markets, with a recent rally on Wall Street.

But Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London (UCL), says it is vital that any public spending project is well-focused.

Government has the ‘upper hand’

“If we keep just arriving to the problem once the problem presents itself, so from one crisis to another – the financial crisis, the climate crisis, the health crisis – we’re not going to get out of this constant crisis mode,” she said.

“Most of what governments are currently doing worldwide, the trillions that are being thrown at the problem globally, is really just correcting for a problem.”

Instead, she says, we should “structure that immediate short-term remedy with a long-run kind of vision” of what kind of economy we would like to create afterwards.

“This is the moment for government to do that, because it has the upper hand,” she added.

Image copyright
Getty Images

Most economists warn of a phenomena they call “secular stagnation” – a long-term lack of growth.

This can frighten off both consumers and investors, leading to a lack of investment and innovation that spirals down into greater unemployment and poverty. Allianz’s chief economic advisor Mohamed El Erian says it is a danger which needs to be avoided.

“You need to win the war against a health threat and you need to win the war against an economic depression, but you also need to win the peace of sustained, high and inclusive growth… I worry that we will end up winning the war, but we may fail in winning the peace,” he told the BBC.

“Difficult decisions have to be made early on as to how you allocate the relief measures you have…what some developing countries are discovering is they simply can’t replay the playbook that has been used in the richer countries – they have to come up with something different that recognises that they’re in there for the long haul.”

Just in time

Well before the crisis, the idea of a globally-linked economy was, if not under threat, then being questioned – did it benefit very few, to the detriment of millions?

That was one of the pressures behind the wave of new nationalism, and with it, talks of new barriers to protect individual countries’ economies against foreign competition.

The economists the BBC spoke to are agreed there will be one big change in supply lines following the pandemic – “just in time” will be replaced by “just in case”.

Manufacturers will build in greater redundancy and look to buying vital components closer to home, but active barriers against world trade are a different story.

Image copyright
Getty Images

Professor Beata Javorcik is chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He says a big worry is that populist leaders could use incidents of shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE) being stopped at the border to “promote more protectionism”.

“It would be very easy to use instruments that are available under the World Trade Organization rules to introduce tariffs against subsidised imports…so in the absence of global commitment to free trade the world may just sleep walk into protectionism,” he said.

Even the sharpest minds can only predict the outline of a new world, but it is inevitable these changes will bring a political reaction.

The future is not written in stone or in the stars, nor can it been fully discerned by peering at statistics and graphs. That is in large measure because it depends on choices yet to be made by voters and governments, investors and companies.

The old cliché runs “never waste a good crisis” and certainly, many of the centre left are hopeful that the end result of this pandemic may have, in their eyes, some positive consequences, from more international cooperation to greater government support for domestic programmes they favour, like healthcare and re-training.

But increased poverty all over the world, with little prospect of a rapid reversal of a downward spiral, is a dark background as our century enters its twenties.

Listen to a special edition of Radio 4’s The World This Weekend, looking at the impact coronavirus will have on the global economy.

“Starting up, it’s going to be hell,” says Mark Selby, chief executive and co-founder of Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca.

“A lot of people are going be nervous about coming out. We’ve all got to do our jobs in making people feel confident, making them feel safe, but also giving them that experience that hospitality is.”

Restaurants and pubs across the UK have been hard-hit by lockdown measures that were introduced in March in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

In England, the hospitality industry expects to be allowed to reopen from 4 July, although there’s no firm date yet for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

But Mr Selby does not expect consumer confidence to return overnight.

“The reality is that people are not going to come back in their droves, they’re going to slowly build back that confidence,” he says.

Wahaca typically serves about 60,000 diners each week. But the restaurant chain expects that once it has reopened, sales will initially be down by about 60%, before slowly coming back up over the course of the next year.

Coronavirus measures

Like other British restaurant chains and retailers, Wahaca is considering a number of measures in a bid to keep staff and workers safe amid the pandemic.

Mark says customers could be given the option of ordering food on apps. Other safety measures are likely to include having staff wash their hands every 20 minutes – once its 28 UK outlets have reopened.

And although Wahaca is keen to make things work in a newly socially-distanced world, Mr Selby expects the restaurant chain to struggle, if social distancing guidelines are not relaxed at least somewhat.

“I don’t see how anyone makes money on two-metre guidance, it becomes an impossible situation to work to,” he says.

Other countries use lower numbers for social distancing recommendations. In France, for example, the recommended distance between customer and staff is one metre.

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said it was working with industry “at pace to develop safe ways for pubs, restaurants, bars and cafes to reopen at the earliest opportunity it is safe to do so”.

The government is expected to release guidelines on operating in a “safe” manner as soon as this week, so firms have time to prepare before reopening in England.

More government support

Trade association UK Hospitality is asking the government to provide further support for businesses if the two-metre rule remains in place in the UK.

Its chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “If we’re operating at such a loss and furlough is going to be withdrawn, then it’s vital that these businesses which have been cash-starved since March have additional funding to help with rents in particular, which is the second biggest overhead they’re facing.”

The majority of Wahaca’s 1,000 employees have been furloughed under the government’s job retention scheme.

Mr Selby credits the scheme with making things much easier for the restaurant chain: “Before the furlough scheme, we said that we were going to have some very difficult decisions to make.”

But he called for the government to go further: “Businesses like ours in the restaurant space are absolutely going to need more support.

“I can guarantee for the next six to eight months, with sales where we expect them to be, we are going to need serious rent concessions.”

Section 82 of the government’s Coronavirus Act 2020 came into force on 25 March to help protect commercial tenants.

It banned the forfeiture of commercial leases until 30 June 2020 – or longer if the government deems necessary – for non-payment of rent.

But the Act has not prevented landlords from taking other legal actions against tenants in order to force them to pay rent withheld due to the lockdown.

In May, the government said it would soon publish a code of conduct for both commercial landlords and tenants who are facing additional pressures on their finances.

Casual dining in crisis

Many casual dining chains have already been struggling in the face of rising overheads and falling consumer spending.

Those in the hospitality sector have seen their troubles worsen due to the coronavirus pandemic, as customers have been forced to stay at home amid lockdown.

Carluccio’s, for example, was bought out of administration by the owner of Giraffe restaurants. Despite its rescue, more than 1,000 jobs will be lost at the Italian restaurant chain – over half of its total workforce.

And last week The Restaurant Group, which owns Frankie & Benny’s, announced that as many as 120 outlets will not reopen after lockdown.

In an email to managers seen by the BBC, the company said: “Many sites are no longer viable to trade and will remain closed permanently.

“The coronavirus crisis has significantly impacted our ability to trade profitably, so we’ve taken the tough decision to close these restaurants now.”

Image copyright
Getty Images

New rules requiring all people arriving in the UK to self-isolate for 14 days have come into effect.

Those arriving by plane, ferry or train – including UK nationals – will have to provide an address where they will self-isolate and face fines of up to £1,000 if they do not follow the rules.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the laws are designed “to prevent a second wave” of coronavirus.

But some industries have warned they will be severely impacted by the rules.

Anyone arriving from the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man does not have to complete the form or enter quarantine.

There are also exemptions for workers in some industries such as road haulage and medical professionals who are providing essential care.

All other travellers have to fill in a “public health passenger locator” form on arrival. Failure to do so could lead to a penalty of £100, or travellers might be refused entry.

If they are unable to provide an address, the government will arrange accommodation at the traveller’s expense. There will also be checks to see whether the rules are being followed.

The government has faced criticism from the aviation industry and some Tory MPs over the measures, but Ms Patel said the measures were “proportionate” and being implemented “at the right time”.

“The science is clear that if we limit the risk of new cases being brought in from abroad, we can help stop a devastating second wave,” Ms Patel said.

Those arriving in England could face a fine of £1,000 if they fail to self-isolate for the full 14 days, while they face a £480 fine in Scotland.

Passengers should drive their own car to their destination, where possible, and once at their destination they must not use public transport or taxis.

They must not go to work, school, or public areas, or have visitors – except for essential support.

Passengers in transit, who do not pass through border control, are also among the groups who are exempt from the mandatory isolation.

The travel industry has been vocal in its criticism of the government’s quarantine rules, warning that the isolation period will deter visitors and put jobs at risk.

The manufacturing industry has also highlighted that fewer flights will restrict imports and exports, which will have a knock-on effect for the freight industry, as well as hampering the recovery of some businesses.

Image copyright
AFP

British Airways, Easyjet and Ryanair have written to Procurator General Sir Jonathan Jones, the government’s most senior legal official – the first stage required when taking legal action against the government.

The airlines say they’re prepared to ask for a judicial review into the government’s travel quarantine rules.

And travel trade body Abta has called on the government to urgently create a roadmap for restarting international travel.

“We must restart international travel as soon as it is safe to do so, and businesses and customers would benefit from the government outlining when this is likely to happen,” said Abta’s chief executive, Mark Tanzer. “There are many livelihoods at stake.”

The UK’s biggest airport services company, Swissport, has also warned that the rules could deliver a “killer blow” to the tourism sector.

‘Another blow to our industry’

Industry leaders wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson in May asking that the government avoid taking a “blanket approach” to quarantining visitors to the UK.

Instead, they suggested that the UK agree so-called “air bridges” with countries that have low coronavirus rates.

Following this, aviation, maritime and rail industry leaders were invited to a roundtable discussion with the home secretary and aviation minister Kelly Tolhurst on 4 June to discuss the new quarantine plans.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

However, British Airways refused to attend the meeting, and aviation bosses told the BBC that they were not impressed by the content of the call.

The BBC understands that Ms Patel did not provide assurances that the quarantine would be reduced in any significant way soon.

According to the BBC’s transport correspondent Tom Burridge, relations between the government and Britain’s aviation industry are now at “rock bottom”.

BA, already under huge financial strain due to the pandemic, has called the quarantine rules “another blow to our industry”.

The airline is proposing to make 12,000 staff redundant in order to stay afloat. Separately, Heathrow Airport’s chief executive has warned that about 25,000 jobs could be at risk at Heathrow Airport.

Government sources have told the BBC that the UK is hoping to secure air bridge agreements with certain countries, including many major European tourist destinations, such as Portugal, Spain and France, as well as Australia and Singapore.

But, for now, the government’s position is that the idea is only “under consideration”.

• WHO IS WATCHING YOU WORK? The future of working from home
• MISSING FOOTBALL? Watch The First Team

Image copyright
Luis Onofre

The BBC’s weekly The Boss series profiles different business leaders from around the world. This week we speak to shoe designer Luis Onofre.

Luis Onofre openly admits that his first foray into luxury shoe design could have been his last.

The Portuguese designer launched his first namesake collection in 1993, shortly after taking over his family’s shoe factory.

His father had warned him it wouldn’t sell, and his dad was proved correct. Consumers weren’t interested, and the shoes bombed.

“My lack of market knowledge was to blame,” says the 49-year-old. “It was heartbreaking, a big lesson for me. It was very humbling.”

Image copyright
Getty Images

Today things are very different. Luis’s glamorous designs are sold worldwide, and Michelle Obama, actress Naomi Watts, and socialite Paris Hilton are among his fans.

He has also become a symbol of a recent renaissance in Portuguese shoemaking, helping to put the country firmly back on the haute couture map.

Luis, who was born in Oliveira de Azemeis near Porto, in northern Portugal, grew up around shoes. His grandfather opened a footwear factory in the town in 1938, and the business has been been run by the family ever since.

Image copyright
Luis Onofre

By the late 1980s, Luis’s father was running the business, which was producing high-end shoes for French brands such as Cacharel and Galleries Lafayette.

But when he asked Luis to join the company, the younger Onofre was reluctant, having set his heart on studying interior design.

“I remember seeing the stresses my parents brought home and thinking, ‘I want to run away from that,’” Luis recalls.

He changed his mind, however, and took a degree in shoe design, before becoming managing director of the company in 1993.

Keen to shake things up, he got the factory to start producing its own designs, not just those of other people. And the pain of seeing his first collection flop only made him more determined to reach his goal.

Image copyright
Getty Images

“I knew I wanted to do my own brand, but after my first attempt went wrong I decided to gain experience and resilience in the area. This sector is ever-changing, fashion changes, new technologies change all the time.”

For the next six years he continued to make shoes for other brands, while honing his design ideas on the side.

Finally his moment came in 1999 when he launched a 50-piece collection at Momad, a major shoe trade fair in Spain. Interest in the brand grew following big investments in marketing, and sales picked up.

“We started doing the shoe fair circuit, in Milan, Paris, Moscow,” Luis says. “Clients started requesting more exclusive designs. Our collections became more complex.”

More The Boss features:

Today he is best known for his women’s shoes, which retail for around €300-€400 (£265-£355; $335-$445), and are all made in Portugal.

His designs have been described as “sexy” and “decadent”, and often incorporate elements such as Swarovski crystals or vertiginously high heels.

Now based in Porto, the business turned over €8m last year, and employs 60 people across its commercial operations, factory and flagship stores. It also continues to make footwear for other brands such as Jimmy Choo and H&M.

Image copyright
Luis Onofre

Despite his success, Luis has had to overcome other setbacks as a businessman, including an industry downturn in the 1990s.

Portugal’s shoe-making sector is centuries old, and considered on a par with Italy’s and Spain’s, despite being less well known. But in the late 1980s it was hit hard after Portugal joined the European Economic Community – the precursor to the European Union – in 1986, opening up the economy to foreign competition.

The country’s footwear industry wasn’t ready for the change, and many factories had to close over the next decade. “In the early 1990s, we lost almost all of the international clients we had,” Luis recalls.

Portugal’s reputation for shoe making fell into decline, but Luis and other forward-thinking designers were determined to save it.

“We still had a generation of factory owners that did not understand contemporary fashion, or what was being sold internationally,” he says.

Image copyright
Getty Images

Over the past 20 years, however, he says a new wave of “open-minded” designers have brought fresh ideas to the table and turned things around.

Portugal has regained its reputation for high-end design, factories have been retooled, and thousands of new jobs have been created. It’s helped the country become a key player in the global shoe market, with exports totalling €1.8bn in 2019, up from €1.3bn in 2010.

Paulo Goncalves, a spokesman for the Portuguese Footwear, Components and Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association, describes Luis as part of a “fresh generation of designers” that brought about change.

“Luis brought a new discourse to the shoe industry, putting talent and creativity at the forefront of an internationalisation strategy,” he says.

Luis’s business still faces challenges, though. Shoemakers across Europe were already struggling with weaker consumer demand, and rising competition from China, when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Now the global luxury goods market is in a deep freeze.

To help out during the global health crisis, Luis paused shoe production at his factory last month to instead make thousands of face masks that were donated to Portuguese citizens.

Shoe manufacturing is now up and running again, and Luis is focusing on increasing online sales as physical stores around the world remain closed. He is also betting on a rebound in Asian markets that are further ahead in lifting Covid-19 restrictions.

Image copyright
Elliot Swann

Elliot Swann caught his mum spying through the kitchen window as he practised ballet in their garden.

Despite still being physically closed, ArtsEd, the London-based acting conservatory where Elliot studies musical theatre, has powered on virtually since the start of the coronavirus lockdown.

Alongside classmates on Zoom meetings, Elliot, 21, drills voice practices and dance moves on the garden decking, and taps away in the bathroom of his parents’ house in Hampshire. But will there be any work for him and his fellow students after they graduate this summer?

Normally, at this time of year, acting students around the world are making their first foray into the business, performing in person for agents, casting directors and producers, hoping to sign on with a talent agency, or even pick up their first paid work.

But with theatres still closed, and TV and movie filming on hold, the acting world is currently an industry on pause.

Image copyright
ArtsEd

“All of our work has stopped,” says James Calleri, who casts Broadway and regional theatre in New York as well as film and TV. “Everything has just been cleared.”

Mr Calleri, who also runs the graduate acting programme at New York’s Columbia University, would normally have taken graduating students on an industry tour of Los Angeles back in April.

They would have performed for some of the big showbiz decision makers. But all Columbia’s acting school showcases were cancelled, indefinitely.

“We were going to push to September, but the problem is that theatres are so debilitated right now,” Mr Calleri says. “They don’t even know what their life is going to be like after lockdown.”

Any auditions that are still taking place have moved to home recordings or “self tapes” that are emailed off.

Back in Hampshire, Elliot has made it though five rounds of recalls for a West End show.

“The good thing is you get a second chance,” he says. “You can watch it back, and if you want, you can do it again.”

Image copyright
James Calleri

Elliot’s professors are also happy to give feedback and guidance before the videos are sent out, something that would not be possible with in-person auditions.

“The [movie and TV] businesses have been moving auditions to self tapes for some time, but I think plays and musicals will head that way too, even after the virus,” says Chris Hocking, the principal of ArtsEd.

“Everyone is trying to help these graduates. We have worked hard so that the students have industry contact throughout their training.”

What continues for Elliot is a waiting game. An actor almost never receives feedback unless they win the job.

“Especially now,” he says, “because everything is extended. And many tours have had to cancel because of the lockdown.

“There is every chance you might be auditioning for a show, you could get cast, and then a couple of weeks later they’ll say, ‘I’m really sorry, it’s been cancelled.’”

Image copyright
Getty Images

Elliot knows he is lucky to be getting seen. Many new graduates are not getting any industry face-time.

Racheal Owens, a teacher at Guildford School of Acting, says their graduates were due to have a final day of performance for agents and casting directors back in March. But a day before the show, the lockdown restrictions were announced, and it was cancelled.

“Some students had signed, but others had not, and would have been hoping for more opportunities, as we had two musicals left to perform,”she says.

The staff at Guildford have continued to do everything possible to get self tapes to agents. Luckily the industry in London has been receptive, in an effort to support this year’s graduates, but there is very little work available.

“I really feel for these students, whose introduction to the industry is so compromised,” says Ms Owens.

Image copyright
Michael Carlo Photography

A missed in-person performance can make life especially difficult for young actors with an offbeat style, or unusual looks, that might not come across well in a short self tape, plus resumé (CV) and headshot.

Such performers are more likely to win over agents and casting directors in person.

But even if young actors impress, however they are able to audition, how long will it be before the industry can return to some sort of normal?

James Calleri wonders how the practical experience of going to the theatre would work with social distancing.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Producers might sell out a 1,200-seat Broadway theatre, but if 600 people sit in every other seat in order to socially distance, shows will fail to recoup costs, he points out. In smaller theatres, social distancing would be impossible.

“The class of 2020 is the injured party right now,” he says. “I feel like the industry knows that and hopefully will try and look out for them.”

Global Trade

More from the BBC’s series taking an international perspective on trade:

Alex Butler, who runs the New York boutique agency Henderson Hogan, warns his recent signings that things aren’t going to get better overnight.

“I told them, ‘Look, if you are in this for the long haul, come to the city, get your apartment, your day job and your classes set up. Once things go back, we can gear up.’”

But it could be a long wait. Mr Butler says he would love for Broadway to reopen in September but fears curtains may not rise until next year.

Still, he thinks that sometime down the road, if young actors coming out of school this year can hold tight, there will be opportunities to audition for these shows.

“People working on Broadway might decide they are done with the business, or if they are touring, their spouses won’t want them to go on the road anymore,” he says.

New York casting director Alison Franck, who casts Broadway, touring and regional musical theatre shows, says that actors have always needed to be creative and resilient. Those attributes are needed now more than ever, because many will struggle to get agents straight away.

Image copyright
J Demetrie

“These actors have to learn how to hustle on their own,” she says. “And I think the ones who figure this out may often end up being more successful in the long run.”

Elliot understands how hard the current situation is, but he is ready to dig in. He believes the industry will come back “stronger than ever”.

Acting has been his dream for his whole life.

“I’m absolutely in it for the long haul,” he says.

Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has said in an interview that it would be “wrong” to relax Sunday trading laws.

The government reportedly plans to suspend the laws for a year, in a bid to stimulate the economy after the coronavirus crisis.

But doing so may not bring in more sales, Ms Nandy told the Andrew Marr show on BBC One.

“I’m not at all convinced that this will actually help to get the economy back on track,” she said.

Since 1994, trading laws have allowed smaller shops to open all day on Sundays in England and Wales. Larger stores, such as supermarkets or department stores, may open for six hours between 10:00 and 18:00.

“We’ve just been applauding our frontline workers, supermarket workers are amongst those,” said Ms Nandy.

“They are deeply worried about what this all means for them in terms of time with their families.

“This could hit our high streets very hard as well at a time they are really struggling with coronavirus – I just think this is the wrong thing to do.”

The proposed relaxation of the rules were reported by the Times newspaper on Saturday.

Reforming Sunday trading laws

Plenty of attempts have been made since to relax the rules further, but have met resistance from religious leaders and small business leaders, who fear it would hand larger shops an advantage in gaining more sales.

Image copyright
AFP

The last attempt to overhaul the rules was in March 2016, when David Cameron’s conservative government was defeated by 317 votes to 286.

The government had hoped to relax existing restrictions on Sunday trading, which limit large shops to opening for a maximum of six hours, by devolving responsibility to local councils.

But their plans were thwarted by an unlikely alliance of Labour, the SNP and Conservative backbenchers.

Proponents of Sunday shopping argue that restrictions on opening hours are anachronistic and out of kilter with the 24/7 economy in goods and services that people have come to expect and rely upon.

Meanwhile, others oppose relaxing Sunday trading laws on religious grounds, as well as concerns about the impacts it would have on small businesses and on the families of shop workers.

Image copyright
Getty Images

“It’s like a last-ditch attempt to get the last bit of money out of a gambler. I was just disgusted.”

Dave, not his real name, has fought gambling addiction nearly his entire life and now has £50,000 of gambling debt spread over up to six credit cards.

He’s talking about when he recently saw an advert about a way that lets people gamble using credit on their mobile phone.

Just six weeks after a ban on using credit cards came into effect, politicians and charities say the regulator – the Gambling Commission – must take urgent action to shut down this “loophole”.

The Commission told the BBC’s Money Box programme it’s watching closely for any unintended consequences of the ban and will consider further intervention if necessary.

Meanwhile, a trade group that represents gambling firms said it was working to ensure its members followed the rules.

Gambling with credit

The whole idea of bringing the credit card ban in was simple – to stop people gambling with money they didn’t have.

It’s something campaigners had long pushed for and have welcomed now it’s been finally introduced.

But charities including StepChange and Gambling with Lives, as well as politicians, say a “loophole” allows people to get around that ban.

Dozens of online casinos allow users to choose a pay-by-phone option. Not only is this effectively credit if you have a contract and pay your phone bill monthly, which campaigners say goes against the “spirit” of the ban, but there is also, of course, nothing to stop people paying that bill with a credit card.

• Lockdown ‘a disaster’ for problem gamblers
• Betting firms must check customers after one hour

There is a limit on how much people can spend on their phone in this way, completely unrelated to gambling, which stands at £40 per day and no more than £240 per month.

‘No safe place’

But for Dave that’s not good enough.

“It’s like there’s no safe place, it’s like they [the gambling industry] are always on your back,” he says.

“There are people who’ve been in recovery, who are currently struggling, and this will just lead them back into that cycle.

“It’s also dangerous for people who’ve never really considered gambling who might think: ‘It’s only £10 or £20 on your phone, what harm can it do?’ It could be a new, fresh avenue to getting into this life addiction.”

Dr Henrietta Bowden Jones, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of Psychiatrists and director of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, agrees with Dave.

She says she’s particularly worried about the impact this type of gambling might have on problem gamblers and under-18s: “This is the first time I have heard of the ability to gamble using mobile phone [bills].

“The whole point of banning credit card use for gambling was to ensure consumer safety in relation to avoiding spending more than one could afford, but this seems to me to be a loophole through which gambling could still occur and cause financial harm.”

The Betting and Gaming Council, which represents around 90% of the UK’s betting market, said in a statement it “accepted and welcomed the introduction of the ban on gambling with credit cards”.

“All of our members agreed to the guidelines set out by the Gambling Commission, and we will work with the regulator to ensure that they are adhered to.”

For more on this story listen to Radio 4 Money Box.

Follow Dan on Twitter.

If you’ve been affected by gambling addiction, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

Image copyright
Getty Images

The pilots’ union Balpa has accused British Airways of undermining talks over proposed job losses by threatening to dismiss and re-hire its members under new contracts.

The airline proposes to make 12,000 staff redundant, as it struggles with the impact of the pandemic, with more than 1,000 pilot roles at risk.

British Airways said it was acting now to protect as many jobs possible.

It insisted no final decision had been made.

Balpa has been meeting with the company, unlike some unions, including Unite and GMB, which BA says have refused to enter talks.

But Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton said on Saturday night that those talks now hung “by a thread”.

“Balpa reps have been in consultation with BA over its proposed 1,130 pilot job losses and we’ve been doing that constructively and in good faith,” Mr Strutton said in a statement.

“Then, on Wednesday evening, a letter from BA added another 125 job losses and also for the first time threatened all 4,300 BA pilots with dismissal and reengagement if we did not reach agreement on changes to terms and conditions.

“I’m appalled at the cavalier attitude shown by BA towards the Balpa reps and to its pilots.

“This has seriously undermined our talks which now hang by a thread.”

Willie Walsh, the chief executive of BA’s parent company IAG, emphasized this week in a letter to Parliament that no decision had been made in relation to actual redundancies.

“There are some who believe the company is exaggerating the scale of the challenge,” Mr Walsh said in the letter. “Nothing could be further from the truth. The situation is unprecedented.”

Quarantine row

British Airways said it was acting now to protect as many jobs possible, as the airline industry faced the deepest structural change in its history. It called on Unite and the GMB to consult with it on its proposals as Balpa was doing.

Separately, BA, Easyjet and Ryanair have made inroads towards a legal challenge to the government’s plan to impose two weeks’ quarantine on international travellers.

The three have written a letter to Procurator General Sir Jonathan Jones, the government’s most senior legal official.

In it, they argue the rules for incoming travellers will be more stringent than those for people who are actually diagnosed as having coronavirus – and point out that the rules will not apply for residents of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

The proposals have been roundly criticised across the travel industry. The Home Office has said it believes the measures will help stop the spread of the virus.

The BBC has requested comment from the Home Office.

Image copyright
Ffion Storer-Jones

When Ffion Storer-Jones wants to make an urgent work call she packs up her “portable desk” and sets off on a hike.

Broadband and phone signal is so bad in her home in mid Wales, she often has to go up a hill to get 4G.

With more of us now working from home, Future Generations Commissioner Sophie Howe has said broadband must become as essential as “gas, electricity and water”.

The UK and Welsh governments said they had invested millions in broadband.

According to Think Broadband, a broadband information website, 95% of Welsh homes and businesses are now receiving superfast broadband, more than in France and Germany – up from 44% in 2013.

But with many normally office-based staff now having to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, some living in rural areas not covered, known as “not spots”, say they are struggling.

Image copyright
Sophie Howe

While broadband is not devolved, the future generations commissioner has now put forward a five point plan for the Welsh Government calling on them to make broadband a “key public service or utility” in Wales.

Ms Howe said she expected more people to work from home even after lockdown was lifted and ministers should improve broadband infrastructure to help create a “greener Wales” by reducing the need to commute and travel to meetings.

She said: “Think about the way rural economies could be transformed if this way of working became the new normal.”

‘I’ve mapped out local 4G hotspots’

Image copyright
Ffion Storer-Jones

Ffion, who lives near Dolanog, Powys, has a backpack with a laptop and phone, ready to hike up a hill to make an urgent call or share large documents.

Having struggled to take part in meetings, she has mapped out where the 4G hotspots in her area are.

• Village life ‘abysmal’ without broadband
• Fed up villagers install ultrafast broadband

At the start of lockdown, Ffion was working from her family home for a non-governmental global health organisation based in Brussels, and campaigning for the Rural Youth Project, an international organisation that aims to make rural places viable for young people to live and work.

“The demands of daily calls, work webinars, video uploading and working on a team cloud-based system full-time on poor connection was challenging,” she said.

She said moving outside to find a better 4G connection was “not always easy”.

“Whether it’s pouring down with rain or you don’t have a laptop maybe… and it’s expensive in terms of data which in my case is not unlimited,” she added.

‘Running a council with no 4G’

Denbighshire council leader Hugh Evans has been trying to lead the local authority from his farm near the village of Llanelidan, Ruthin.

But he lives in a “not spot” and has been unable to see his colleagues, as he has to phone into meetings rather than taking part in video streamed meetings online.

“Sitting in a meeting for me is about seeing how people react, seeing their body language. That’s gone,” he said.

He said while he was not complaining, running the cabinet from home without being able to see anyone was frustrating.

“It’s not an ideal scenario, where I feel in a rural area where I live, the digital investment has not kept up with the towns and cities.”

‘There’s now no limit to our business’

Image copyright
Sarah Day

For Sarah Day good broadband means the sky is the limit for the company she works for.

As chief executive of Abercynon-based Practice Solutions, which supports health and social care companies, she said that the move to online meetings meant they could work with people across Wales, rather than having a local focus.

“Now we’re able to deliver that business virtually, there is no limit to who and where we may engage in other business opportunities in the future,” she said.

But she said she had noticed people living in some more rural areas struggled more than others, and digital infrastructure needed to improve so everyone could “work well at home”.

‘Virtual Parliament not easy’

From June all 60 members of the Welsh Parliament will be able to take part in virtual sittings of the Senedd.

To date only a number of politicians have attended the video meetings, casting votes and quizzing ministers.

But Brexit Party member Mandy Jones, who represents north Wales, said the digital meetings had been hard for those living in rural communities.

She said living in a rural part of north Wales “means that my internet connection isn’t always strong enough to conduct all my work from home”.

But the Senedd said its IT team had not had any complaints from members about connection problems.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

While broadband is not devolved, and is the responsibility of the UK government, the Welsh Government said it had invested £200m in improving infrastructure, via its Superfast Cymru scheme.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We agree that broadband should be treated as a key utility like powers and water and have called on the UK government to introduce a proper Universal Service Obligation on providers.

“We have a range of measures to help those still not connected including voucher schemes, a further full fibre rollout and a new £10m community fund which we are developing with local authorities.”

The UK government’s Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport said it had spent £1.7bn on delivering better broadband across the UK.

“The funding has helped make superfast speeds available to 92% of premises in Denbighshire,” he said.

“It is fantastic that many rural homes and businesses in Wales are taking advantage of our voucher scheme subsidising the installation of gigabit-speed broadband, but we know there is more to do.

“So we have committed a further £5bn to make sure the hardest-to-reach areas don’t miss out on even faster internet speeds.”

Image copyright
Getty Images

The UK’s financial regulator is to write to steelworkers who lost money transferring their pensions, amid a wider overhaul of the rules on charges.

Many members of the British Steel Pension Scheme lost significant sums of money over the advice they were given to transfer to a different scheme.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will ban charges paid when a transfer from certain plans takes place.

It will contact 7,700 steelworkers outlining how to make a complaint.

Which charges will be banned?

The FCA said there were too many cases where people had been advised to transfer out of defined benefit, or final salary, pensions (guaranteed by employers) into defined contribution pensions (which depend on performance of investments) against their best interests.

The suggestion is that financial advisers had an interest in them doing so, as they could levy a charge only when the transfer went through.

Now the regulator has confirmed it will ban this so-called contingent charging in October.

The debate over pension transfers hit the headlines following the case of the British Steel pensioners who were pushed to transfer out of secure pensions in what was condemned as a feeding frenzy by advisers who levied high charges when transfers went ahead.

A Commons committee called such cold-calling firms “vultures” and “parasites” in its report into the scandal.

The FCA found that in 192 instances it reviewed, 21% appeared to be suitable, 47% appeared to be unsuitable, and 32% appeared to contain “information gaps”.

The regulator will write directly to all 7,700 former members of the British Steel scheme who transferred out to “help them revisit the advice they received, and to complain if they have concerns”.

Separately, it is conducting 30 enforcement investigations of pension advisers.

The FCA’s action has been criticised by some pension advisers, who say that genuine assistance will be lost as a result of the regulator’s attempt to tackle rogues in the sector.

Andy Bell, founder of AJ Bell, said: “Banning contingent charging swaps one set of problems for another and doesn’t get to the heart of the issue. Most importantly, defined benefit transfers will now become an option only available to the wealthy.

“Covid-19 will see the failure of businesses, which in turn will weaken or bring down final salary pension schemes. Members of defined benefit schemes, no matter how wealthy, should be allowed to access their right to transfer.”